Background

Louis Winslow Austin was born on October 30, 1867 in Orwell, Vermont, United States. He was the only child of Lewis Augustine Austin and Mary Louise Austin née Taft. As a child, he lived with his parents at Manchester, Bennington Co., Vermont, 1868-1872 and Meriden, Sullivan Co., New Hampshire, 1872-1880.

Education

Austin graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont in 1889 and received the doctorate from the University of Strasbourg in 1893.

Career

After receiving the doctorate from the University of Strasbourg in 1893, Austin served as a member of the physics faculty of the University of Wisconsin from 1893 to 1901, and then returned to Germany for research work at Charlottenburg. In 1904 he entered United States government service in the Bureau of Standards and began a series of researches on radio transmission that made him world famous. The scope of his research was considerably enhanced by the establishment of a naval radiotelegraphic laboratory at the Bureau of Standards in 1908. This arrangement continued until 1923, when the laboratory and two others were merged into the radio division of a new unit (at the Navy Department), the Naval Research Laboratory.

Austin was in charge throughout this period, and thus had many opportunities for long-range transmission experiments. The most important was a test made in 1910, when United States cruisers en route to and from Liberia maintained radio contact with America and helped Austin and his collaborator Louis Cohen (1876–1948) to establish the Austin-Cohen formula, a semiempirical method for predicting the strength of radio signals at remote locations. The formula remained in use for many years and played an important role in the design and manufacture of improved apparatus. (Prior to World War I, the United States Navy had so much difficulty in making American firms meet its specifications that it began to design and manufacture its own radio receivers.)

In 1923 Austin resumed his work for the Bureau of Standards proper and became head of its laboratory for special radio transmission research. He contributed significantly to the understanding of the sources of radio atmospheric disturbances (“static”), a field in which he remained fruitfully active until his death.

As the doyen of United States government radio scientists, Austin exerted considerable influence and leadership in the development of radio engineering. He was one of the first members of the Institute of Radio Engineers (he joined on 22 January 1913), and one of the few with a doctorate; he served as IRE’s third president in 1914 and in 1927 received its Medal of Honor. Just before his death, Austin was unanimously nominated for the presidency of the International Radio Scientific Union (URSI), of whose United States national committee he had served as president.

He died on June 27, 1932 at the age of 64 in Washington, D.C.

Achievements

• Austin's achievement was in the successful research which focused on radio propagation and static, and more specifically the influence of temperature, humidity, magnetic storms, and sunspots on long-range radio transmissions. Under his direction, the Navy conducted long-distance wireless measurements in 1909 and 1910 between the USS Birmingham and USS Salem, as they steamed to Liberia and back, and Fessenden's station at Brant Rock, Massachusetts. Austin measured received impulses from the ships on the 3,750 and 1,000 meter wavelengths to determine the relationships between radio frequency, distance, and received signal strength. These measurements led Austin and collaborator Dr. Louis Cohen to develop the empirical Austin-Cohen formula for predicting radio signal strength at long distances.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Some Quantitative Experiments in Long-Distance Radiotelegraphy

    (Excerpt from Some Quantitative Experiments in Long-Distan...)

    2019
  • The Comparative Sensitiveness of Some Common Detectors of Electric Oscillations

    (Excerpt from The Comparative Sensitiveness of Some Common...)

    2019
  • Experimental-Untersuchungen Über Die Elastische Längs- Und Torsions-Nachwirkung 2010
  • Experimental-untersuchungen über die elastische Längs- und Torsions-nachwirkung 1893
  • Exercises in Physical Measurement 2009

• Other Work

  • Exercises In Physical Measurement (1895) 2010

Views

Austin’s work involved long-range transmission experiments, most notably a study, conducted in 1910, that tested radio contact between ships travelling between the United States and Liberia. This work helped Austin and his collaborator Louis Cohen to develop the Austin - Cohen formula for predicting the strength of radio signals at long distances. Austin’s later work centred on the study of radio atmospheric disturbances, i.e., “static.”

Connections

Louis Austin married Laura A. Osborne on August 16, 1898. Laura Alma Austin née Osborne was born 10 August 1875 at McGregor, Clayton Co., Iowa. She was the second of three children to Willis Leroy Osborne and Julia Livia Osborne née Colman. She lived with her parents at McGregor, Iowa 1875-1877 and La Crosse, Wisconsin 1877-1898 until her marriage. She was a student at the University of Wisconsin, graduating in the class of 1897 with a degree of Arts Bachelor.

Laura remained actively involved with her alma mater throughout her life. She was a life member of the Alumni Association of the University of Wisconsin and served several roles within the organisation. She frequently accompanied her husband in his travels (England, 1912; Panama, 1915; Puerto Rico, 1920; Europe, 1921; Europe, 1922; Japan, 1927). There were no children to the marriage.

Father:

Professor Lewis Augustine Austin

Mother:

Mary Louise (Taft) Austin

Spouse:

Laura A. Osborne

Friend:

Louis Cohen

A mathematical model for propagation of radio frequency electromagnetic waves along the surface of the earth was for some decades one of the greatest mathematical challenges, engaging the minds of some of our foremost mathematicians. Throughout that period, as each new model was developed and promoted, it had to withstand the immediate question "how well does it match the Austin-Cohen formula?" This was the lasting testament of a few years circa 1911 of exacting measurements undertaken by Austin and his friend and colleague Louis Cohen.

colleague:

Johannes Stark

Louis Austin studied the properties of gases at high temperatures together with colleague Starke.

References

• TECHNOLOGY And Culture - Society For The History of Technology
  2004
• Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  1970